China’s Corals Fall Victim to ‘Wicked Environmental Problems’

TOWNSVILLE, Queensland, Australia, December 28, 2012 (ENS) – China’s coral reefs have declined by 80 percent in the past three decades, destroyed by the consequences of economic development, finds a new international scientific study.

The first comprehensive survey of the state of corals along mainland China and in the South China Sea gives a grim picture of decline, degradation and destruction resulting from coastal development, pollution and overfishing.

The study by Professor Terry Hughes and Matthew Young of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and James Cook University in Townsville, and Dr. Hui Huang of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, is published in the current online issue of the journal “Conservation Biology.”

Flowerpot coral on the coast of China at Shenzhen, a major city just north of Hong Kong (Photo by longtinchin)

“A wicked problem is one that is very hard to solve without having a whole lot of other foreseen and unforeseen consequences to people, industries and to the environment itself,” explains Hughes.

“We found that coral abundance has declined by at least 80 percent over the past 30 years on coastal fringing reefs along the Chinese mainland and adjoining Hainan sland,” the authors state.

“On offshore atolls and archipelagos claimed by six countries in the South China Sea, coral cover has declined from an average of 60 percent to around 20 percent within the past 10–15 years,” they write.

“So far, climate change has affected these reefs far less than coastal development, pollution, overfishing, and destructive fishing practices. Ironically,” they write, “these widespread declines in the condition of reefs are unfolding as China’s research and reef-management capacity are rapidly expanding.”

The corals of the South China Sea region cover an area of 30,000 square kilometers, have high conservation values, and support the livelihoods of tens of thousands of fishers.

The fact that some reefs are claimed by several different countries makes conservation and management particularly difficult.

“Typically, when a coral reef degrades it is taken over by seaweeds – and from there, experience has shown, it is very hard to return it to its natural coral cover. The window of opportunity to recover the reefs of the South China Sea is closing rapidly, given the state of degradation revealed in this study,” says Hughes.

The scientists conclude that the loss of coral cover in the South China Sea, as elsewhere, is due mainly to a failure of governance on the part of the nations responsible for the marine environment.

China and other countries in the region have recently established a number of marine parks, but they are too small and too far apart to prevent the decline in coral cover, says Hughes.

“Governing wicked problems becomes more challenging as they increase in extent from local to regional or global scales, particularly where institutions are weak or nonexistent,” the scientists warn.

Cases such as the Spratly Islands, which are claimed by six different countries, highlight the dilemma.

“There is no quick fix to a wicked problem as complex as securing a sustainable future for coral reefs in China and the South China Sea,” they write.

The authors suggest that governance of China’s coastal reefs can be improved by increasing public awareness, by legal and institutional reform that promotes progressive change, by providing financial support for training of reef scientists and managers, expanding monitoring of coral reef status and dynamics, and by enforcing existing regulations that protect reef ecosystems.

They say that China’s centralized system of government is well-placed to quickly rescue the region’s imperiled coral reefs in collaboration with neighboring countries, but only if there is “innovative leadership and strong public support.”